USC Dornsife Pre-Law Success Stories

• John McAllister

  B.A., Theatre, B.A., Economics '12

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  How did Dornsife Pre-Law Advising help you? "Between figuring out what schools I should apply to, trying to tackle the dauntingly open ended personal statement, and just dealing with the admission process as a whole, I definitely felt more than slightly stressed.  I set up a meeting with USC Pre-law advising, and was quickly informed that I was stressed for little to no reason.  Viannda walked me through my next few steps in the process, gave me a number of excellent resources for writing my personal statement, and mostly just told me to relax. While I will not say the process is entirely free of stress, USC Pre-law gives excellent resources and support for each part of it, which make it as painless as possible. In my case, I mostly just needed to be reminded that I was in fact not forgetting to do something crucial, and that the admissions process is not that terrible to manage. And it really is not bad as long as you take it one step at a time, and stay on top of the deadlines. That being said, it was always great to know that I had a resource for getting tips on a personal statement, answering questions about the admissions procedure, and really anything that could come up.  I went from feeling overwhelmed to relaxed and confident.  I ended up comfortably finished with everything before the holidays, and I received my first acceptance in early January."

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  What advice would you give to pre-law students? "If you can take the June LSAT or at least do some of the work applying over the summer...do it.  It's better to apply early, and it would have been less stressful for me to have been done applying by the early fall (instead of writing a personal statement during midterms and applying around finals). Also, study whatever you want in undergrad. Law schools want all different backgrounds in their incoming classes.  There is no set 'pre-Law' major they are looking for, and I met all kinds of people, from musicians to stock-brokers, at my admitted students weekend."

   

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  Attending: Columbia Law School

   

• Nadine Shu Rong Tan

  B.S., Business Administration (International Relations) '12

   

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  How did Dornsife Pre-Law Advising help you?

  "I really appreciated Dan's support when I was worried about getting into law school. He, as are the other advisors I'm sure, is a great sounding board for helping me make my own decisions. In addition, I liked the mock 1L class, including the chance to meet [USC Gould Admissions] Dean Reid. In general, I liked the events organized by your office that gave us the opportunity to meet deans of admissions and current students, plus the lectures sponsored by the law school."

   

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  Attending: University of Southern California Gould School of Law

   

• More coming soon!